Claude Code Skills, Subagents and Hooks Explained

Claude Code Skills, Subagents and Hooks Explained

If you have been using Claude Code for a while you have definitely run into three terms: skill, subagent and hook. All three live under “customizing Claude Code” and at first glance they look like they do the same job. They don’t. Each solves a different problem, and picking the wrong one means either needless complexity or a setup that never fires 🛠️ The Short Answer The decision rule Skill: when you keep writing the same instructions over and over Subagent: when a job produces so much output it floods your main conversation Hook: when you need a rule to hold without exception Slash Commands Are Skills Now The biggest change first, because most older guides miss it: custom slash commands have been merged into skills. ...

August 2, 2026 ·  9 min ·  1877 words
Extended Thinking vs Adaptive Thinking Explained

Extended Thinking vs Adaptive Thinking Explained

If you have hit extended thinking and adaptive thinking back to back in Claude’s docs and wondered whether they are the same thing, you are not alone. Short answer: they are not, and you are almost certainly using adaptive thinking already without realizing it 🧠 What Is “Thinking” in Claude? Before answering, Claude can use a scratchpad to reason through the problem on its own. It works step by step, rules out possibilities, does the math, then delivers the final answer. ...

August 1, 2026 ·  8 min ·  1571 words
Claude Opus 5 Released: Anthropic's New Flagship Model

Claude Opus 5 Released: Anthropic's New Flagship Model

Anthropic today announced Claude Opus 5, the new flagship of the Claude family. The model brings a major jump over Opus 4.8 in agentic coding, knowledge work, computer use, and scientific research. Best of all, these gains ship at the same price. Let’s look at what the new model offers and where it stands against its rivals 🚀 What Is Claude Opus 5? Opus 5 is Anthropic’s most capable general-access model to date. Replacing Opus 4.8 , it shines especially in complex, long-horizon agentic tasks. ...

July 24, 2026 ·  7 min ·  1322 words
What Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber? Google's Bug Hunter

What Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber? Google's Bug Hunter

On July 21, 2026, alongside Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite, Google announced a third model that is nothing like the other two. Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber is purpose-trained for cybersecurity, and it is not generally available. It is a 3.5 Flash derivative fine-tuned to discover, validate, and remediate software vulnerabilities. It got its own separate post on the DeepMind blog, which itself says a lot about how differently Google treats this one. ...

July 21, 2026 ·  6 min ·  1123 words
Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite Introduced

Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite Introduced

On July 21, 2026, Google announced three new Gemini models at once: Gemini 3.6 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, and the defense-focused Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber. The theme of the announcement is clear: not higher scores, but getting the same job done with fewer tokens. As agentic workflows move into production, the bill is driven less by how smart a model is and more by how many tokens that intelligence burns. Google aimed straight at that. Here are the details. ...

July 21, 2026 ·  9 min ·  1754 words